How to fill out Montana MV12

The Montana small-estate route for a vehicle, used where nobody has been appointed executor or administrator and the whole estate - the car included, less liens and encumbrances - does not exceed $100,000. It puts the title into the heir's name, and that is the point a seller needs to understand: the car has to become yours before it can become anybody else's. Where the title is missing and the vehicle is going to a third party rather than staying in the family, the manual sends the survivor to an MV7 replacement instead, so that there is a certificate to sign.

Written against MV12 (2/25), issued under MCA 61-3-222 and MCA 72-3-1101, small estates; signed under MCA 45-7-203. The relationship blank in section 3 sits inside a sentence claiming your right to the vehicle is superior to that of every other person who survived the deceased. If that is not comfortably true - if there are siblings, a surviving spouse, or a will nobody has read - this is the wrong form, and filing it anyway is a false certification under MCA 45-7-203.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV12 from the mvdmt.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV12 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Section 1: who is applying

   Legal name, identification number, residential and mailing addresses, email and phone.

   Watch out: The person who signs is the person the title will issue to. If the family intends the car to end up somewhere else, sort that out before this form, not after.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   The deceased owner, and the date of death

   Legal name, date of death, and where they died - with a second block if the title carried two names.

   Watch out: A copy of the death certificate goes with this. Where the cause of death has been redacted, the manual accepts it if a Clerk and Recorder or Clerk of Court certified it.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Section 2: the vehicle

   Year, make, model, style, colour, identification number, plate, title number and weight.

   Watch out: The weight decides the fee - $12.36 up to one ton, $10.30 above it. On a pickup that is a question worth answering from the door label rather than from memory.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   The registration choice

   Cancel the registration with the transfer, or keep the plates running and pay for them.

   Watch out: Keeping the plates may mean registering in your own name and paying all applicable registration fees at the county treasurer. It is not a way of inheriting a paid-up year.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   The relationship, inside the certification

   Daughter, son, spouse - the word that completes the claim of a superior right.

   Watch out: Read the whole sentence it sits in before writing anything. It is the sharpest statement on the form and the one that a disappointed relative would read first.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Sign it

   Printed name, identification number, signature and date under MCA 45-7-203.

   Watch out: One applicant signs. There is no notary here - Montana removed that from title work in October 2025, and this form's weight comes from the unsworn-falsification statute instead.

What gets this one rejected

• •An estate over the threshold. Above $100,000 the property is subject to probate, and the manual sends the transaction to a personal representative or executor instead.
• •An applicant with a competing heir. The certification claims a right superior to that of any other person surviving the deceased - it is not a form for one of several siblings to file quietly.
• •A vehicle bequeathed to somebody else. The certification says the property has not been bequeathed by will to anyone other than the applicant, so a will naming a different person ends this route.
• •Filing it to transfer straight to a buyer. It issues the title to the successor. The manual's route for selling to a third party where the title is missing is an MV7 replacement so that the survivor can sign the certificate.
• •A missing death certificate. For a non-probated estate the manual is clear that all that is required to release the interest of the deceased is a copy of the death certificate - required, not optional.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Survivorship is presumed on a two-name title. MCA 61-3-202(4), and the manual's own gloss: the joint tenancy right of survivorship relationship does not have to be shown on the title.
• •A redacted death certificate is acceptable. The manual: if a survivor chooses to redact the cause of death on a death certificate, this will be accepted if it is certified by either the Clerk and Recorder or Clerk of Court.
• •A guardianship changes who applies. Where the title is in the deceased's name alone and the applicants are under conservatorship or guardianship, the title can issue on this form to the applicants and their legal guardian, with the guardianship papers attached.
• •It covers an heir who died mid-transfer. The manual: where the titled owner died, the heir never completed the titling, and the heir has since died too, the heir's personal representative can complete this form on the heir's behalf and the title issues in the heir's name.
• •Plates are a separate decision. The two boxes in section 2 are not a formality - one cancels the registration with the title transaction, the other keeps the plates running and sends you to a county treasurer to pay for them.

What it costs

Every line here was read off MV12 (2/25) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Montana Department of Justice, Motor Vehicle Division, Vehicle Services Bureau pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Montana seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Montana involves.